Passer-by alerts Cedar Rapids woman to house fire

UPDATE: Victoria Lofgreen woke up to a stranger banging on her windows and door Tuesday morning.

She smelled some smoke and quickly realized what was going on.

“You've got one minute,” the man told her.

Lofgreen grabbed her cat, Buffy, and got out of the house. Smoke was billowing out of attic windows and flames were visible near the roof. She asked the man if she should call the Fire Department and he said he had already done it.

“I asked, ‘Who are you?' and he just laughed,” Lofgreen said.

No one was injured in the fire at 201 27th St. Dr. SE, which was reported at 7:11 a.m. Fire and smoke caused heavy damage in the finished attic, where one of the three tenants lives, officials said. Investigators determined the fire started in the attic, where they found an extension cord in the attic powering two refrigerators, a microwave and toaster.

Fire Department spokesman Greg Buelow said the extension cord was compromised and caused the fire, either because it was overloaded or because a dresser drawers were pushed against it.

Lofgreen, 52, was the only one home when the fire started. The tenant who lives in the attic, 53-year-old Larry White, had been gone for a couple days, and Charles Rodenhizer, 62, who lives in the basement, left without noticing any smoke about 20 minutes before it was reported.

The man who alerted Lofgreen was truck driver Dennis Clinton, 45, of Center Point. He had just made a stop at the Cedar Rapids Country Club and noticed smoke when he pulled up to the stop sign in front of the house. He watched for a minute, to make sure it wasn't a dryer vent, and then took action.

“I didn't really think about it too much,” Clinton said. “I just thought somebody might be in the house. Nobody else was doing anything, so I went to the door and started pounding.”

Representatives from the American Red Cross and Salvation Army responded to the house to provide assistance to the fire victims. The house is owned by Patricia Whittenberger, of Cedar Rapids, according to the city assessor.

Tuesday's fire was directly across the street from a house that caught fire in the early morning hours of Jan. 29. That blaze at 129 27th St. Dr. SE made the house uninhabitable.

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